BEAVEN MEMORIAL PRIZE.

White Ribbon, Volume 16, Issue 185, 15 November 1910, Page 1

BEAVEN MEMORIAL PRIZE.

(A (.‘oin|»(>tition carried out un«1« i the an* piers of th.* Invercargill \\ t’.T.l’.) Alcohol : It* Fffect on the Individual and the Nation. Some creditable work was done by the candidates who competed for the “ Heaven Memorial Essay " on the ‘'Object of ‘Alcohol: Its Effect on the Individual and the Nation.’ The sun, of £lO, provided by the late Alfred Heaven and Mrs Heaven, was ottered in three prizes of £7). £3, and £'L and the successful competitors were : ( S. Hrown 1, F. Simon and Eva McLean 3. The ju Igtß (M r W. (Mehaffey) expressed himself very pleased with the literary ability shown. The winning essay was as follows: During the past half-century there has been a great awaken-

ing throughout the civilised world to the evils arising from the use of strong drink. It had always been recognised, long before this movement began, that the habit of intemperance tended to lower the worth and value of an individual, and that a nation given to drunkenness was handicapping itself in its national life; but it has been left to the last generation or two to discover how vast and far-reaching is the influence of alcohol on every branch of our social organisation,

and how dee]) is the harm it inflicts on those who indulge in it. We have to deal, first, with the effect of Alcohol on the Individual. It is unnecessary to say anything as to its effect when taken habitually to excess, for the ruin and degradation of life it then causes are too patent to he disputed. There are not wanting those, however, who would not assent to the proposition that alcohol taken in any quantity,

however limited, is injurious to almost every organ of the human body and every faculty of the human mind; nevertheless, this statement is supported by an overwhelming body of evidence from a great variety of sources. In a recent work, entitled "Alcohol and the Human Body, ’ by Sir Victor Horsley and Dr. Mary Sturge, the conclusions of modern medical science, based on years of observation and experiment by hundreds of workers, as to the physical effects of alcohol, have been summarised, and the more important facts there set forth may be enumerated here. In the first place (though there is still some controversy on this point), it is becoming more and more conclusively established that alcohol is not a food. The celebrated chemist, Liebig, has stated that " nine quarts of the " best ale contain as much " nourishment as would lie on " the end of a table knife."

The true classification of alcohol is with the drugs, not with the foodstuffs. It is, moreover, a poisonous drug. “ Alcohol," says Sir Andrew Clark, "is a poison—so " is strychnine, so is opium. It "ranks with these agents." We may consider its effects on various organs of the body : (1.) The skin. The effect of Alcohol on the skin is to cause a slight dilatation of the blood vessels, so that a greater quantity of blood reaches the

surface of the body and is thereby cooled, thus lowering the general temperature. The belief that a glass of spirits warms a man is a popular delusion. What it really does is to make his skin feel warmer, owing to the greater quantity of blood there, while his internal temperature is reduced. Arctic explorers are practically unanimous in condemning the use of alcohol in cold regions. (2.) The blood. Aloohol interferes with the proper work of the blood, preventing the oxygen from reaching the tissues and delaying the elimination of waste products. It damages the structure of the red corpuscles and checks the vigour of the white corpuscles, whose function it is to destroy any germs of disease that may become lodged in the body, thus greatly reducing the power of resisting ordinary infections or ailments.

(3.) The digestive system. Alcohol is injurious to digestion in several important ways. It irritates the delicate mucous membrane, extending along the whole course of the alimentary canal, causes an excessive flow of saliva and gastric juice, and affects the structure and work of the liver and kidneys, thus opening the door to innumerable complaints. (4.) The heart. Though there is a popular impression to the contrary, alcohol, even in small quantities, weakens the force of the heart’s heat, and impairs its proper working. This has been conclusively proved by numerous experiments. The effect of heavy drinking in causing fatty degeneration of the heart, which frequently ends fatally, is well known. (5.) The muscles. The use of alcohol hinders the due control of the muscles by the brain and nerves injures their “ tone,” and reduces their working power. The testimony of employers of labour, of military experts, and of athletes, all goes to show that a man will do more work and better work without alcohol than with it.

Equally injurious is the effect of Alcohol on the Mental Faculties.

It has been proved beyond a doubt by an interesting series of experiments carried out by Professor i£raepelin, of Heidelberg, and others

that work requiring rapid and accurate mental processes, such as adding figures, type-setting, or naming associated words, is done with less speed and accuracy after taking even a " moderate ” quantity of alcohol. The same investigators also found that memory is distinctly hampered. Taken in large quantities alcohol results in delirium tremens, and is frequently the cause of permanent insanity. The emotional and moral functions suffer even more than the intellectual, for alcohol weakens a man’s self-control, impairs and ultimately destroys his self-respect and reverence for ideals, stimulates all the baser elements of his nature, and deadens bis conscience. it will thus be seen that, whether regarded from the physical, mental, or moral standpoint, the effect of alcohol on the individual is in every way harmful. When we come to consider its effect on the nation as a whole, we are confronted with an even darker picture, for of all the evils existent in society there is not one that is not largely caused or accentuated by drink. The statesmen of all countries recognise this fact “ Beer,” said Von Moltkc, ” is a far more dangerous enemy to “Germany than all the armies of “ France.” It is impossible in the limits of this essay to do more than give a bare outline of some of the ways in which strong drink injures a nation.

(1.) To begin with, there is the direct loss of life for which it is every year responsible. What this amounts to is incapable of mathematical estimate, but some idea may be gathered from mortality statistics and the expeiience of life insurance societies. The figures of the Registrar-General in Great Britain show that the death rate among brewers is 40 per cent, and among innkeepers and inn servants 66 per cent, heavier than the average rate. It has been established by actuarial calculations that of every 100.000 moderate drinkers starting at the age of 20, 44,000 reach the age of 70, while in the same number of total abstainers 55,000 reach the allotted span. Thus 11,000 lives out of 100,000 will be needlessly lost to the nation through drink. (2.) Drink is a fruitful source of poverty. The drink bill of the

United Kingdom in 1908 amounted to over £161,000,000, or more than the total income of the Government. From the economic point of view, this represents a huge loss to the nation. If a man buys a loaf of bread, two parties are benefited by the transaction the seller, who gets the money, and the buyer, who gets useful food—but if he buys a pint of ale only one party is benefited, namely the seller; the buyer gets only a harmful article, and would be better off if he had thrown the money away. Unfortunately, a great part of the expenditure on drink, both in Great Britain and other countries, comes from the pockets of those who can least afford to waste their money in this fashion. The poor are thus made poorer; the very poor are reduced to absolute destitution. B. S. Rowntree, in his work on “Poverty,” states that in regard to the greater part of the cases of poverty he investigated, “ the preponderating ” factor was drink.”

(3.) It is notorious that Drink is One of the Principal Causes of Insanity.

On an average 22*5 per cent of the males and 9 2 per cent, of the females annually admitted to the asylums of England and Wales owe their insanity to personal intemperance.

(4.) Lastly, the sum total of the crime to be laid at the door of alcohol is enormous. Exactly how great a proportion of the whole it may amount to cannot he determined, but judges, magistrates, police officers, and social workers are practically unanimous that at least 70 per cent, of crime generally is caused directly or indirectly by alcohol. The harm occasioned to the purity and soundness of national life through this cause can only be imagined. These facts should be sufficient to show that alcohol is a deadly foe to the nation as it is to the individual. Every year it takes its toff of life, health, happiness, and character, breaks into thousands of homes and fills our hospitals, gaols, asylums, and charitable institutions with its victims. In the words of a manifesto recently issued by the French Government, “Alcoholism, “ whether regarded from the point “of view of the health of the indi-

“vidual, of the existence of the “family, or of the future of the “country, is one of the most terrible “scourges that afilict mankind.”